Mirage Rising out of Death Valley, California

A translucent shallow blue
Lake, a high white wall

Of mountains ringing it,
Hard driving rain

Making cool looking red
Beads of sweat

Fringing the foreheads
Of pale faces

Up to their necks in it.

The Logic Behind Using Rhetoric When Writing Poetry

"The [Poetry] archive....aims to insure current leading
English-speaking poets are recorded reading
their work for future generations."
--BBC News, November 30, 2006

Rave is
To rant

As

Cant is
To drivel

Or is it

Rant is
To rave

As

Drivel is
To cant.

Maybe it is

Rant is
To rave

As

Cant is
To drivel.

Or perhaps

Rave is
To rant

As

Drivel is
To cant.

Can't drivel?
Can't rant?

What the hell,

Just go through
The motions--

Some critic's bound
To save your ars.

Biodegradable Detergents, or The End of The Age of Innocence

Take a powder?

Let me tell you, slugger--
When these gents

Go on and on about how
They wanna clean our little corner

Of the planet of filth and go on
To say they're clean themselves,

You really wanna
Throw in the towel?

Imaginary Narrow Escape, 1950

i.m. Christos (Chris) Zambaras, 
March 19, 1938-March 11, 2000


In this picture,

You can see where
The battered front

Wheel of my trusty tri-
Cycle looks like

A gun-shot barrel rim,
Having just banged

Off a lamppost before homing in
On my older brother's sarcastic grin--

You should have seen
The look on his face when 

It came within inches of him.

(From the unpublished ms. The Intricate Evasions of As.)

Ontology of a Poem

In which the quick
Brown fox slumps

Not so slyly over
After being

Hounded to death.

Dark Bedtime Story

Them flashing white
Bones down

In the dark stream bed,
They done

Bed down for the night--
Y'all don't fright now--

Sweet dreams,
Good night.

In God We Trust, or Fiefdom in America

The times were vile,
the villagers spent,

torn to pieces
by The Good Lord's rent.